Get Your Hands Off My Neck...

Or should I say, Get Your Hands Off My "No Neck"!

Over at the Million Card Giveaway, I recently traded for a 1974 Walt "No Neck" Williams. I had to give up about six inches in neck length, but I gained 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" of awesomeness!

Seriously! Andy Kosco looks like a giraffe compared to Williams!

I just wish I could figure out how he got his nickname... 

Sean from over at Condition: Poor has unwittingly (and unsuccesfully) offered me two trades for this very card... Bwaaaaah haaaaa haaaa! Mine! (Unless suitable Padres are offered.)

Million Card Wife Swapping...

I know I will never have the largest collection of cards from Topps Million Card Giveaway... but I can definitely have the coolest!

New additions:

1973 Fritz Peterson and 1973 Mike Kekich

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, I swapped errr, swiped this from Wikipedia:

    

     The affair began in 1972, when the two couples joked on a double date about wife swapping, a phenomenon that caught on in some uninhibited circles during the early 1970s. According to one report, the first swap took place that summer, after a party at the home of New York sportswriter Maury Allen. The couples made the changes official in October; Kekich moving in with Marilyn Peterson and Peterson with Susanne Kekich, but no word leaked out until spring of 1973. A light moment came when New York Yankees General Manager Lee MacPhail remarked, "We may have to call off Family Day." The trade worked out better for Peterson than it did for Kekich, as Peterson is still married to the former Susanne Kekich, with whom he has had four children. Kekich and Marilyn Peterson did not last long.

I also added this little gem:

Such a cool card! I can't believe I made this trade by mistake... I thought I was getting a 1978 Snuffleupagus...

Damn. I had no idea his first name was Aloysius! (and I always pictured him on the Mets...)

Million Card Trade...

I recently received a trade offer for one of my '59 cards that I actually liked. My Bob Buhl card went away and was replaced with another '59:

1959 - #234 Chuck Tanner

I have previously expressed my fondness of the 1979 World Series champs. Now I have a card of the manager... Sweet. 

Million Cards... The Joy of a Completed Collection...

A couple of new cards and a couple of trades later...

In condensed form... (click to enlarge)

I am finally starting to focus my collection:
     1. Padres
     2. Airbrushed cards
     3. Jim Bouton
     4. Padres team cards

Million Cards... The Joy of a Completed Collection...

Here's my collection... so far...

In condensed form...

Million Card Trade...

A couple of weeks back, I entered a code and revealed a 1977 Mets team card. That damn card is popular. I have received numerous trade requests for it. Not to beat a dead horse, but I am not a big fan of the trade interface on the Million Card Giveaway site. It would be great to be able to make trade counter offers, and see other peoples' collections. Of course, I can understand the issues that might be encountered: contest collusion, saving on shipping, etc.

I had received a few good offers. Sean (slangon) from Condition: Poor was one of the best. The card he offered sucked, but I am a big fan of his work. It was great to know the email address of a possible trade partner. I agreed that if I didn't receive a decent offer, I would have the card shipped, and send it to him as a gift. (I think I may have promised it to someone else too... Oops.)

Not wanting to disappoint both people I had promised the card to; I decided to disappoint both of them. It was for a good reason, though. I received a mildly intriguing offer for the Mets card this morning. Two cards, both awesomely goofy were offered as trade bait. I would have declined the trade and honored my promise(s), but for one thing...

This guy used his email address as his screen name! Awesome! I sent him an quick message, thanking him for his inspiration (possible mistake?)

How great would it be to be able to work out trades (even after shipping) with fellow Million Card junkies!!! Well I think it would be cool. Anyway, here are the two cards I got for my '77 Mets card.

I would have accepted this trade based on the awesomely horrible, cartoon hat on Kessingers dome. In combination with the look on Sammy Stewart's face, I couldn't resist!

Someone with more blog exposure should start accepting screen name = email address combinations, and create an area on their blog where they can be referenced.

I'll be the first to volunteer (Go SDSU Aztecs!)... punkrockpaint = travis@punkrockpaint.com

UPDATE!!!

I just recieved the following in an email from my trade partner:

"I put my email as my user name so people could negotiate. i try to offer fair trades but sometimes they need tweeked and you hate loosing a good trade just for not knowing what someone wants."

Good to know that there are thinkin'-type people out there. Thanks, Jess!

UPDATE #2!!!

I have received 3 offers for the Kessinger card in the last 2 hours! (and apparently Sammy Stewart is a felon - Thanks, Capn')

In October 2006, Stewart began serving an eight-year sentence in a North Carolina prison on a felony drug charge, having been convicted as an "habitual felon". He has been charged 46 times with more than 60 offenses since 1988, and has spent 25 months in prison over six separate stints.

From Wikipedia

All Your Cards Are Belong To Us...

I recently realized that I had proposed a trade on the Thousand K Giveaway that would have got me in trouble. As much as I wanted the 1971 Nate Colbert, I couldn't part with card #414 Woodie Fryman. I had checked the Heartbreaking 1971 Need List, turns out Matt needed one of my '71s that I had revealed. Fryman was promised to Matt. I clicked on the Cancel Trade Offer tab, and after a message warning popped up. I followed with another click, certain that I didn't want to break Matt's heart (really didn't intend that pun). The following message popped up:

Ouch. Topps, I am a member in good standing in the Society for the Promotion Of Good Grammar (SPOGG). Since I am sure you read this blog, please correct this minor error... or I had stopping purchase your product.

You Always Remember Your First...

I just completed my first trade on Topps Million Card Giveaway site. I actually redeemed a vintage hall of famer, 1972 Boyhood Photos of the Stars - Willie Stargell.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Pops. I had the chance to meet him back when I was in high school. He was an amazing person. Not to mention that the '79 World Series is the first of which that I have any recollection. I don't remember any specifics, but I do remember the We Are Family song... Does that count?

Back to the Pops card I redeemed. I have never been a big fan of the Boyhood Photos of the Stars cards. I really dislike the new ones from this year's set. So I sent out a trade request on Saturday...

To my surprise, when I awoke this morning, I had a new card in my collection:

Lil' Pops:

Had become...

A true work of art! I can only imagine that Arthur got fired from the Topps art department after this catastrophe. Nonetheless, I am very happy with my new addition. Fitting that it came on Monday.

Awesomeness...

Inputted code...

Awesomeness revealed:

I have managed to reveal cards from '58, '59, '60, '63, '65, '66, '67, '71 (2), '72 (2), '74, '76 (2), '77 (3), '84, '87, '90, '93, and '05... In conclusion, I have bought WAY to much of this stuff.

Million Card Bipping...

I bought a blaster last night on my way home from work. After pulling one Million Card Giveaway redemption card, I logged on to the Topps site on my iPhone. Quite surprised that it was actually working, I was even more shocked when this appeared:

Clearly topping the epic, 210 Dave Gallagher bipping, I got Million Card Bipped... I have not (yet) been Bipped via the postal service, but Topps managed to get me.

Topps Million Card Giveaway... and LOST

Am I the first to see this? If you watch the promo video for the Topps Million Card Giveaway, at the 42 second mark a "code" is revealed. That code is not some random bunch of numbers. Nope. Anyone familiar with my favorite TV show will recognize The Numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. Don't believe me? Check it.

Thanks, Topps, for making my day! (Oh, thanks for the 1972 Steve Renko In Action, too! Awesomeness!)

Oh, I tried The Numbers as a code...

That's ok. The numbers are bad! Last thing I need is a cursed 1987 Ed Lynch card...

My Six... Of A Million...

When I first saw the Topps Million Card Giveaway cards in my annual box of Topps cards, I actually liked the look of them. The design is great, but I assumed it was one of those - enter code... sorry, you-are-not-a-winner-type giveaways. Or worse yet, Congratulations! You win a 1989-Mike-Harkey-Rookie-Card-type giveaways. In a way, I guess the latter is true, but I didn't know that EVERY card gets a card. Thank you blog-people.

I pulled six of the little buggers out of my stack of cards, and went to work typing codes. After some of the difficulties I had heard about, I was expecting a slow process. It actually went quite quickly for me; a remarkably pleasurable experience.

Here is what I got:

Nice! A card older than me! An All-Star his rookie season in '58, Bob smacked 14 homers. Unfortunately, he only hit double digits once more in his career (10 in '62 for the Senators.) 

After being traded to the Cubs in '84, Sutt went 16 and 1! Fortunately, the Cubbies met a horrible demise in the 1984 NLCS...

In Action and Montreal Expos... That is awesomeness right there! Another card older than me and my first non-Padres 1972 card. For that, I will always love you, Steve Renko. (According to Baseball Reference, Steve was a very similar hitter to Catfish Hunter. According to my dad, I was almost named Catfish. It was a close second to Travis, and was followed by an equally awesome Spike.)

My first Hall-of-Famer!!! Too bad I have a dozen of the same card already. Welcome to the junk-wax era.

Diving head first into the junk-wax pool... Bobby looks as if he is saying, "You know you aren't gonna spend the money to have me shipped. Why'd you wake me up?"

Hey Matt, wanna trade?